Free Relative Clauses in Croatian Glagolitic Folk Medicine Books

Abstract

Summary The paper examines semantic features and functions of free relative clauses with pronominal relativizers, represented in the Croatian Glagolitic folk medicine books from the 14 th , 15 th and 18 th centuries. Prediction, projection and topicality are singled out as central conceptual and functional features of the expressions studied. The examples are interpreted from the aspect of construction grammar and the pragmatic aspect, and therefore a schematic representation of mental spaces forming the basis for the selected relative clauses has been constructed using the methodology presented in Dancygier and Sweetser (2005). The expressions studied are also viewed in the context of the titling function, as well as in the context of all relative clauses in the studied corpus and have therefore also been linked to the specific features of the text type and certain diachronic changes in their use have been observed.